52 Psyche [April 



DENDROTETTIX QUERCUS PACKARD. 



By a. N. Caudell, 

 Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture. 



The name of the above insect is an excellent illustration of 

 confusion resulting from the use of manuscript names of insects 

 before the species is described. The pertinent literature of this 

 genus and species is as follows: 



1887. Bruner, Bull. No. 13, Bur. Ent. Dept. Agric, p. 17-19. 

 (Describes nymphs from Texas and discusses habits of the adult, 

 including flight. No technical name used.) 



1888. Riley, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., Vol. I, p. 86. (Mentions 

 the genus Dendrotettix and the species quercus as new, gives locality 

 as Missouri and expresses the intention of describing in the near 

 future but here gives no characters at all.) 



1890. Packard, Fifth Rept. U. S. Ent. Comm., p. 2U. 

 (Quotes in full the article of Bruner in 1887 and uses the name 

 Dendrotettix quercus Riley MS.) 



1891. Bruner, Can. Ent., Vol. XXIII, p. 191 and Ins. Life, Vol. 

 IV, p. 20. (Uses the name Dendrotettix longipennis but mentions 

 no characters other than the statement that both long and short 

 winged specimens occur. The material here discussed is from 

 Texas on oak and the statement is made that specimens taken in 

 Missouri, also on oak, were described by Rilej^ under the above 

 name.) 



1893. Riley, Ins. Life, Vol. V, p. 254. (Gives a good descrip- 

 tion of the genus Dendrotettix and of the species longipennis, the 

 latter from 2 cf and 3 9 specimens from Texas. He also states 

 that the specimens found in Missouri and formerly referred to by 

 himself as quercus is probably of no more than varietal distinctness 

 and is designated as Dendrotettix longipennis var. quercus.) 



1897. Scudder, Rev. Melanopli, p. 91. (Uses generic name 

 Dendrotettix with Riley as authority, dating it from 1893 but men- 

 tioning the 1888 reference as consisting of name only. The name 

 of the species is given as quercus and the authority for it is given 

 as Riley, both in this reference and in the Catalog of U. S. Orthop- 

 tera published three years later. 



Considering the above articles chronologically from systematic 

 and nomenclatorial viewpoints we at once dispose of the first one. 



